TECHNOLOGIES TESTED FOR UNMANNED BOMBER.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Offering a glimpse of future war machines Thursday, defense officials showed off two robotic experimental aircraft being used to test technologies for an unmanned bomber.

The two X-45A aircraft, being flight-tested at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center, are not intended for combat, but they are being used to test technologies for an unmanned combat air vehicle that Air Force officials want ready by the end of the decade.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing UCAVs with the goal of using them to find and destroy enemy anti-aircraft missiles, guns and radar.

``It will be designed to go against the baddest threats out there in the 2010 time frame,'' said Col. Michael Leahy, UCAV project manager.

The UCAV is the U.S. military's first unmanned aircraft being developed specifically as a combat plane.

Other unmanned aircraft include the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk reconnaissance plane, which is also being tested at Edwards Air Force Base and has been used in Afghanistan, and General Atomics' Predator, a tiny reconnaissance jet that the CIA equipped with anti-tank missiles for attacking convoys and other targets in Afghanistan.

Two Global Hawks have crashed on missions - the second on Wednesday - and Predators have also crashed.

The UCAVs would fly themselves with preprogrammed computer mission plans, but ground controllers can interact and change the aircraft's mission plan in flight.

The UCAV is envisioned to carry as many as 12 precision-guided bombs and fly up to 900 miles to a battlefield and for 30 minutes over the battlefield, then return.

The UCAVs would operate in packs, with up to four aircraft being monitored by one operator.

The UCAVs would be able to communicate with each other, locate their targets and carry out their missions without any human intervention.

``They don't have to come back to mom and say, where do I go?'' Leahy said.

The UCAV concept calls for the airplane to be designed so that it can be disassembled and placed in a small container for storage up to 10 years, then reassembled in one hour.

Affordability is also a major objective of the program. Defense officials want a UCAV system that would cost half that of a manned fighter and be 75 percent less expensive to operate and maintain.

The two X-45A airplane are viewed as the first steppingstones toward evaluating technologies and designs the Defense Department wants to incorporate into the UCAV.

The two X-45As were built by the Boeing Phantom Works under a $256 million cost-share agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force.

Each X-45A is about 26 feet long and has a wingspan of about 33 feet - about the same wingspan as an F-16 fighter but little more than half the length. It is designed to fly at altitudes up to 35,000 feet and at 600 mph.

The first X-45A made its maiden flight on May 22 - a brief 14-minute jaunt around Edwards Air Force Base. A second flight lasting 30 minutes was made in June.

Program officials say they expect to fly the X-45A every two to three weeks during the flight test program. Later this summer, the second X-45 will make its first flights.

Defense officials want to test the two aircraft together next year. Officials want to be able to demonstrate a coordinated attack, using inert weapons, against a target by the two aircraft.

The next steps after the X-45A flights will be the construction and flight testing of three X-45Bs, as close as possible to the eventual UCAV production aircraft.

The B models, now in design, are expected to be similar to the X-45As, but larger - a length of 32 feet and a wingspan of 47 feet.

The B models will be able to carry 2,000 pounds of weapons and fly at altitudes of 40,000 feet.

The first B model airplane is expected to begin flying in late 2004.

Unlike the A models, the B models will be capable of combat if needed.

After testing the B models, program officials expect to be able to put the program into production.

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Photo:

Two forerunners of an unmanned bomber sit outside a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base.

Jim Skeen/Daily News